The University of Ottawa and its Senate, from the eyes of students

University of Ottawa President, Allan Rock is a former Minister of Justice, Health, and Industry. He was elected to the Parliament of Canada three times, in 1993, 1997, and 2000.

Vice-President of Governance, Diane Davidson, served as Deputy Chief Electoral Officer and Chief Legal Counsel at Elections Canada. She worked about 8 years at Elections Canada beginning in 2000.

Mr. Rock’s top advisor, Stéphane Émard-Chabot was elected city Councillor in Ottawa in both 1994 and 1997. Mr. Émard-Chabot quietly left his position at the University just before the beginning of the Fall 2011 semester.

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An Access to Information request (link), filed on August 3, 2011, shows how this trio of U. of O. (non-academic) political wiz-kids at the highest level of corporate control over the University decided together to trash the Senate’s election of its own (academic) representatives to the Selection Committee of the new Vice-President of Resources. They were only partly successful (link, link).

In brief, bypassing the Senate election and turning it into an Executive Committee (keyword: Executive, like, Rock, Davidson, etc.) selection was “all above board” but it would have been “advisable … to contact the student that sits on the Executive Committee and ensure his participation …”

Perhaps Davidson should beef up her C.V. (where is her C.V., anyway?) with a few more articles to follow her 2005 piece,The electoral participation of Canadian youth. As the Deputy Chief Electoral Officer elucidated at that time:

“Without voting, we would not have a democracy.” – Diane R. Davidson

There must be true electoral genius in the leap from this statement to the Rock trio’s current school of thought. The academic community could benefit from more of Davidson’s groundbreaking (backbreaking) new insights as Vice-President of Governance?

As Michael Moore, the documentary artist, has said on several occasions – We, the general public, must be vigilant in keeping our leaders, elites and authorities accountable to the people. Personally, I believe when observing, interacting, hearing, seeing social elites, leaders, authorities, we must always start from a position of scepticism because their first priority will always be their own survival, self interest, and priorities – to the exclusion of the people. It’s a very rare authority who starts from the position of the people’s interests over their own. Everything I’ve experienced and witnessed at the University of Ottawa (and read of U of O watch and here on this blog) is just more of the same. Academics have handed over their power to the managers and administrators (most of whom have little interest in academics, but only power); students remain the biggest losers without fully realizing their position…..